Aston Villa continue to go from strength to strength in pre-season after picking up another victory on their travels.
Unai Emery has Champions League football to prepare for, as this forthcoming campaign is going to be the most important in many a year for the club.
Pre-season is more about getting those legs pumping and those much-needed minutes in your legs.
But Emery has also got the team going pretty quickly because Aston Villa beat Walsall for their pre-season opener and now they picked up another 3-0 win at Spartak Trnava.
Ollie Watkins will be licking his lips at Morgan Rogers’ performance against Spartak Trnava because that’s now three goals in two games for the attacking midfielder.
Just like against Walsall, Emery changed his XI at half-time, with Rogers coming into the action when Villa were leading 1-0, before he scored and then set one up for Cameron Archer.
Villa captain John McGinn, who was part of Scotland’s abject Euro 2024 campaign, will join up for pre-season late.
The same applies to Emi Martinez after he helped Argentina win Copa America after their final win against Colombia – he is Villa’s vice-captain.
That has resulted in several names taking the armband during the first two opening games, including Leon Bailey and Matty Cash.
Villa’s right-back posted several images of himself in action via Instagram and Rogers couldn’t help but poke fun at his teammate in the comments section.
Matty Cash captains Aston Villa in pre-season
After Cash posted ‘another run out’, with the Villa armband on show, Rogers responded by saying: ‘We get it, you were captain, mate’, to which the Poland star laughed in response.
Kosta Nedeljkovic is looking impressive in pre-season for Aston Villa
Aston Villa ‘livewire’ Kosta Nedeljkovic stole the show during the win over Walsall and he has looked impressive again.
This is great news for the Midlands team because they need added quality at right-back.
Ezri Konsa was used quite a lot as a fullback last season and was outstanding, but you feel he is better off at the heart of the defence.
Emery should resist playing Konsa as a right-back because it would improve Aston Villa’s balance, especially with Champions League football on the table.
And if Nedeljkovic can push Cash out of the Villa XI for the start of the campaign, then it might just save the team money in having to dip into the market to go and buy a senior right-back.
